Nasscom hopes to meet lower-end of growth forecast of 11-14%

Mumbai: The USD 100-billion IT industry is expected to meet the lower end of 11-14 percent growth projection in this fiscal, software companies association Nasscom said on Monday.

The revenue from IT exports is estimated at USD 75-77 billion for the year, Nasscom said.

"We feel that we will meet the guidance at the lower end (11 percent) of the estimate. So we are projecting that we will end up the fiscal at least with a double-digit growth," Nasscom Chairman N Chandrasekaran, who is also TCS Managing Director and Chief Executive, told reporters here.

Chandrasekaran further said the year has been marked by significantly varied trends due to the prevailing economic conditions across the major economies.

Chandrasekaran further said though Q2 results have been much higher compared to the previous three quarters, many of the global in-house centres have not seen good growth primarly due to the cost cuts and bigger impact on currency.

The Nasscom guidance is based on three constituents-- performance of domestic companies with domestic operations, MNCs with India operations and the global in-house centres, he said.

On the impact of outsourcing business in the wake of re-election of Obama, who is an open critic of offshoring, Chandrasekaran said he does not see any negative implication as the US is still recovering and hence it greatly requires technology.

We would say the US economy is recovering and that will depend on technologies. So there is going to be growth. Also, governments in general make their policies based on the larger perspectives. We believe the US will now be more focussed on growth," Chandrasekaran said.

Asserting that domestic IT and offshoring companies play an important role in the transformation of the US companies, Nasscom president Som Mittal said, "We add to their efficiencies and competitiveness among others. So you are not going to harm something that is actually useful to you."

Chandrasekaran joined Mittal and said, "we believe we have an opportunity to play a part in their recovery process, by partnering with American companies. And this will both drive growth and create jobs."

On IT companies' hiring plans, the Nasscom Chairman said the most of the companies have stuck to their respective targets and all the offers that were made will be honoured. He also said Mittal, whose term as president was coming to end this year, has been given a one-year extension and a committee has been set up to search for his successor.

Nasscom has set up a committee under past Infosys Chairman NR Narayana Murthy to look into the IT sector infrastructure requirement in 2022, which will submit its report either by December or early next year.